Midnight Rapids
by EatTheRich
Summary: Looking back, perhaps I should have figured out where I'd been reborn earlier, especially given the many clues that stared me in the face—my place of work, for one thing. Self-Insert, SHORT CHAPTERS
1. Chapter 1

Eyes glancing up from my sketch pad for what must have been the thousandth time that day, I sigh. Still not time yet. I'd forgotten how tiresome waiting for these things could be. After all, it had been a literal lifetime since the last time I've had the luxury to treat myself to a sightseeing shuttle like this.

Sure, I'm excited and grateful that I could even afford it (yay, employee discount), but the wait was just too damned long.

Finally, after about a thousand more time-checks, there was a ding.

"Crusader Fifty to the Waterfall Palace, now boarding."

* * *

**AN: I've noticed that most DW fanfics do the whole "girl falls into whoniverse" instead of "girls is reborn into whoniverse", so i wanted to try it. I won't be updating regularly for now since I have a lot of school work, but I wanted to post this at least. **


	2. Chapter 2

"How's it going, Ayo?" I ask, watching as my friend rolls her eyes discreetly at the loud couple deciding where to sit, their teenaged son standing a good distance from them looking annoyed.

"Oh, same as ever," Ayo says, ever the professional hostess.

"I'll bet."

Glancing around to make sure no one is paying attention, Ayo leans forward to ask, "It's your day off and you decide to spend it here? At _work?"_

"Hey, I'm a waitress. Maybe the sights of the Sapphire Waterfall seem boring to you since you see it all the time, but all I've ever seen are pictures. Besides, I don't have enough units to do much else. At least this way, I get to relax, see something pretty, and even save a little money."

"There's an entire Leisure Palace to relax in and _you_ choose the most _expensive_ and _overrated_ part of it," she says with an eye roll.

"My, hostess, are you telling me that I've wasted my money?" I gasp dramatically, hand on my heart. "Don't let the higher ups hear your terrible sales pitch or they just might fire you."

Ayo simply shoots me a dark look that's quickly replaced by a polite smile as she welcomes a man in a pin-striped suit onto the shuttle.

* * *

**AN: and the doctor makes a very brief appearance. Ayo is the name I've given the unnamed hostess, if you haven't already figured that out. It is a Yoruba name meaning joy. I mostly chose it because it's part of the actress' real name (Rakie Ayola).**


	3. Chapter 3

"Allons-y."

The word makes me pause, a prickle of familiarity pangs in the back of my mind. Something about the word—and the man saying it, now that I think about it—is sending up red flags in my head. For some reason, I feel dread pool in the pit of my stomach.

I focus my full attention on the pin-striped man talking to Ayo, wondering why he would cause such a reaction in me. Perhaps he was a criminal of some sort? It's possible I saw him on some sort of Most Wanted list. But that didn't explain why it was his voice and words that alerted me to his presence, rather than his face. An actor, maybe? I squint my eyes, nodding slightly. I feel like I might have seen him on screen before, but it still doesn't feel like the right answer...

"I'm sorry?" Ayo says in confusion.

"It's French, for-"

"Let's go," I say without thinking, in tandem with the man, freezing when both he and Ayo turn to look at me from my spot to the left of his on the other side of the aisle.

"Fascinating," Ayo drawls, raising an eyebrow at me before her attention is stolen by two people who have just taken a seat behind pin-stripe man.

"Quite," the man agrees, assessing me.

His gaze is intense, and the warning bells in my head ring louder.

* * *

**AN: And we officially meet the Doctor, yay! More on him next chapter. On a side note, it has come to my attention some people may be confused either about the length of the chapters or my updating schedule. If it's the first one, the summary does say "drabble chapters" though my chapters aren't exactly 100 words, I put it there so people would know the chapters were short. I'll change it to SHORT CHAPTERS to avoid confusion. My update schedule, on the other hand, is usually once or twice a week, the only reason there was such a huge gap between the first and second chapters was because of school work, which I said in the author's note of the first chapter, but I guess they didn't read it. **


	4. Chapter 4

"Hi," I say after a beat, in an attempt to hide my anxiety, "Isra. Me, I mean. I'm Isra. That's my name."

_Oh my god, **shut up**, Mojo Jojo_, I mentally berate myself. Why am I so embarrassing?

"Hello, I'm the Doctor," he says with a borderline manic grin.

"The Doctor?" I ask slowly, trying to ignore the deafening sound of my own heartbeat, the pieces of the puzzle finally starting to connect. "Doctor who?"

Oh. Oh, fuck.

* * *

**AN: Sorry, kind of a shorter chapter than usual but the next few are around 150-300 words so look forward to that. **


	5. Chapter 5

Stay calm. Calm. Don't freak out—at least, not outwardly.

"Just the Doctor," he replies, his grin crossing the line from "almost manic" and into "completely fucking manic, someone call the cops" territory.

Or maybe that's just the hysteria of realizing I'd been reborn into Doctor Who getting to me.

Don't freak out. Just play it cool.

"Okay, the Doctor," I quip, trying to calm my racing heartbeat.

I'll be fine, I reassure myself. I just have to make it through this adventure—because clearly this _is_ one, if the Doctor's here—and then I'll continue my normal life as if nothing happened.

Assuming I live, of course. _Which adventure is this, and how likely am I to die?_ I muse, and considering how blasé my thought process has suddenly become, I'm almost positive I'm in shock. _Which is good,_ I tell myself, _I can work with shock._

It's better than crippling panic, that's for sure.

* * *

**AN: I know I just posted, but my dad's in the hospital now and I don't know when I'll have the time or motivation to update so I wanted to tell you guys now instead of just ghosting. ****I haven't gotten a chance to edit this, so I'll try to fix any big issues when I start posting again.**


	6. Chapter 6

"It's interesting," the Doctor begins, "I'd thought Old French had fallen out of favor centuries ago. How'd you know what Allons-y meant?"

"I used to want to be a linguist," true, if a bit of an exaggeration (I think languages and words are cool, but I never actually studied linguistics), and it's certainly not how I know the meaning of "allons-y," probably the only French word I know.

"Really? What stopped you?"

"Money, mostly. The only reason I could afford this tour is because I work with the company—the anti-grav restaurant. Have you been? We have the best key-lime pie."

"Oh, yes, Donna and I plan on going after the tour."

Donna? I think I know that name... Was that the blonde girl everyone was obsessed with? Or maybe it was that teacher/babysitter/whatever lady I used to have a crush on...

"Well, make sure to try the pie," I say aloud, hoping I sound as casual as I'm pretending to be.

"Of course. Sounds brilliant," he says, and, holy crap, does he ever stop grinning?

_I hope not_, a voice in the back of my head interjects,_ because that probably means things have gone horribly wrong_.

Oh, right.

* * *

**AN: My dad's fine, if anyone's wondering. He was in the ICU for a bit, but he bounced back remarkably fast. **

**Anyway, I got a review about, I'm not really sure how to put this, the pacing? Maybe? Like, I get what they're saying, and I'll try to make the chapters less filler-like. after this chapter tho cuz it was already written. **


	7. Chapter 7

When the shuttle comes to a stop, so does my heart. I've seen enough movies in both of my lifetimes to know that something is about to happen. I don't know _what,_ but I'd bet my life it's not good.

Wait, no, I shouldn't bet my life, I don't want to jinx anything. I'd really rather come out of this alive, thank you very much.

"We've stopped," states one of the other passengers, I think her name is Val. "Have we stopped?"

"Are we there?" Biff, her husband, asks.

"Can't be, its too soon," Dee Dee, the young student who came in with Professor Hobbes, interjects.

"Yeah, it's only been," I speak up, doing the math in my head, "a little over two hours, I think."

Professor Hobbes adds, "Crusader vehicles never stop like this."

"Evidently it has," I hear someone say as I get up to speak with Ayo.

"If you could just return to your seats, it's only a small delay," Ayo tells the passengers, going to the intercom phone.

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but there's nothing between the Leisure Palace and the Waterfall Palace, so I can assume this isn't just a pit stop," I whisper to her once I get close enough.

"No, probably not," she whispers hurriedly back, before turning her attention back to the phone when, I guess, the driver begins speaking. My guess is proven correct when she asks whoever's on the other side of the phone, "what's going on?"

I cast my eyes over the other passengers, seeing them speak amongst themselves. The Doctor, though, is walking up to where Ayo and I stand, digging into his pocket.

For a moment I have the irrational fear that he's going to pull out a gun or something, before a vague memory stirs, informing me that he "doesn't like guns."

Reassuring, I suppose.

"Ladies and gentlemen and variations thereupon, we're just experiencing a short delay. The driver just needs to stabilize the engine feeds. It's perfectly normal routine, so if you could just stay in your seats," Ayo says, not sounding quite as calm as she probably thinks she does.

By this time, the Doctor has reached us, or rather, the door to the cockpit. When Ayo goes to stop him, he flashes whatever he took out of his pocket at her and, consequently, me. I see words, but I don't get to read what it says before he's through the door. I do notice the Leisure Palace logo on the bottom, though, so I assume he's posing as an employee here or something.

"—you're not supposed..." Ayo calls out after him, trailing off, inhaling deeply as if to calm herself.

Well, that was both rude _and_ entitled.

"Men," I scoff, Ayo snorting in amusement.

"Agreed." Ayo looks over the panicking group of passengers and it's only as a friend (and fellow person who works with stupid people on a daily basis, what with being a waitress) that I feel the exhaustion rolling off her in waves.

"I'll take the family, you take the rest?" I offer, nodding my head in the direction of Biff and Val arguing with their son. Ayo looks like she wants to protest for a moment, before she spots the blonde woman I hadn't caught the name of pacing nervously.

Ayo straightens up, moving to calm the woman without another word, which I assume to mean she's taken my offer. With a shrug, I approach the small family of three.

"—enough, Jethro, not everything is a joke," Val is saying as I near them.

"Is everything okay here?" I ask when they notice me, defaulting into customer service mode.

"No, obviously, everything is _not_ okay," Val snaps immediately, but my friendly smile doesn't falter.

"Unless you have news on why we've stopped in the middle of nowhere, I suggest you leave us alone," Biff adds, seemingly trying to intimidate me for whatever reason. Again, I remain outwardly unfazed, though I am a bit confused at the hostility. Well, I guess people _do_ respond to stress differently, but it's still kind of rude.

"Another employee is checking in with the driver as we speak," I tell them, trying to exude an air of professionalism. "If you could just move back to your seats, I'm sure he will be back with more information soon. In the meantime, I can get you drinks and snacks as we wait if you want them."

"Excuse me, but do you even work here?" Val asks, accusing me of, well, _something_ with her eyes.

"I work with the company, yes," I answer confidently, avoiding the real question. Somehow I doubt they'd respond well to learning I was a waitress and not _technically_ qualified to be telling them what to do. Luckily, Val and Biff relax a bit at this, though their son, Jethro raises an eyebrow at me, a teasing glint in his eyes. I coolly ignore the look, finally convincing them to move from where they'd sequestered themselves in the back of the shuttle and over to their original seats.

Before I know it, most of the other passengers have sat down, waiting impatiently but quietly, at least. Well, until the Doctor returns only moments later, and then the chaos returns.

And then the knocking starts.

* * *

**AN: Happy Holidays! ****This is late because I'll be moving soon so I haven't had a lot of free time. I'll probably only be posting once a week for now, so either Monday or Thursday, but probably not both. I'll try to inform you beforehand if I need to miss a week, though. **

**Btw, I haven't seen this episode in forever so I'm basically going by memory. I did look up a transcript of the episode and added what I missed and edited anything that didn't match the actual episode—for example, I had some characters call Mrs. Silvestry by her name, but they don't actually find out her name until after she's already been possessed or whatever (except for the Doctor, who was the only one to speak to her). I mean, some things could still be wrong, because the script I'm using is basically just the spoken words of the episode and not a lot of the other details—like facial expressions, tone of voice, where they're standing—so I just guessed. We'll call it artistic license. **


	8. Chapter 8

When _the Thing_ outside repeats Biff's three knocks and everyone else starts panicking, I decide it's time to plan my survival.

Step 1: stick as close to the Doctor as possible without looking like a weirdo. Granted, that might also be the most dangerous place to be, but he'll probably be able to handle the danger.

Step 2: listen to the Doctor. Whatever is about to go down, he's likely going to be the only one with any idea of how to handle it, so listen to what he says.

Step 3: don't attract attention—from the monster or the Doctor. I don't remember much about the show, but I'm pretty sure that people who gain the Doctor's attention either die for shock value or become a companion, and neither of those potential outcomes sound particularly appealing right now.

I nod determinedly, coming out of my thoughts just in time to hear Ayo instruct everyone to calm down and return to their seats.

"No! Don't just stand there telling us the rules! You're the hostess, do something!" The still unknown blonde woman shrieks.

"Hey! She is no more prepared to go out into Xtonic light on an air-less planet than you are!" I snap immediately, just managing to refrain from getting in her face.

Ayo shakes her head at me. "She's scared," she whispers, causing me to roll my eyes.

"We all are," I respond drily.

I hear four knocks, and I turn around to see the Doctor standing in front of the door with his hand raised, which I figure means that he was the one to knock. The Thing repeats the four knocks.

Okay, so I've decided to strike Step 1 from the list, because clearly this man is a moron that loves chaos and I don't think I could survive being in the eye of that particular storm.

The blonde woman continues panicking—so much so that I almost feel bad for snapping at her—while the other passengers shout at her to calm down, her hysteria apparently contagious as the others begin to look more and more uneasy.

"It's coming for me!" She cries, backing away towards the cockpit door, the ominous knocking seeming to follow her.

"Get out of there!" The Doctor shouts, rushing in her direction.

The lights go off, and I—and everyone else, I assume—am thrown off my feet as the crusader shakes, as if we'd just crashed into a another vehicle. When the crusader settles, I grab onto an armrest, struggling to stand, only to fall back to the ground when I feel a sharp sting in my ankle. As everyone else stands, I pull up my pant leg to examine my ankle.

"That doesn't look good," someone comments, and I look up to see the Doctor staring at my now swollen ankle. I'm about to respond when I happen to notice the screen behind him. It's only on for a second before it goes black, but it's long enough for me to notice the girl on it.

She looks familiar, I realize. There's nothing especially unique about her—Caucasian, blonde, pretty—but, knowing what I now know about the world I live in, she fills me with the same familiarity that the Doctor did. Now that I think about it, she might have been mouthing...

"Doctor?" said man glances away from my ankle questioningly. "Do you—"

Does he what? Know a blonde girl that might happen to be calling for him through the crusader tv screen thing? If memory serves, the dude is old as dirt, he probably knows plenty of blondes.

I can't even be sure the girl is important to the story, anyway. She could just be some actress I recognize from something else. She might not even be calling out for the Doctor, I could just be seeing things.

"—do you really think it looks bad?" I ask lamely. "My ankle, that is."

"Well, it certainly doesn't look _great_," he informs me, leaning down to grip me underneath my arm to help me stand. "How's the pain?"

"On a scale from one to ten, I'd probably give it a four. I think I just twisted my ankle when I got knocked over."

Jethro comes out from somewhere to grab my other arm, and the two help me into the seat closest to me.

"Has anyone else been hurt?" the Doctor asks once I've gotten settled and thanked both him and Jethro.

"It must have been an earthquake," Professor Hobbes says, probably more to convince himself that nothing strange is going on, rather than any actual belief that what just happened was as simple as an ordinary earthquake.

"The ground is fixed, though," Dee Dee asserts. "It can't have been an earthquake."

At this point, Ayo has come up to my side, squeezing my shoulder gently before reaching into the pouch in the seat in front of me, handing me a torch. "There are torches behind the seats. Everyone should take a torch."

Jethro, torch in hand, moves toward the front of the cabin. "What's wrong with her?" he asks, and I follow his gaze to the blonde woman from earlier who had been sure the Thing was coming for her. She was sitting on the floor with her back to the rest of them. The seats around her had been ripped up somehow, and I felt a chill run down my spine.

"It's alright, everything's fine now," the Doctor tells her soothingly. "We're all still alive, the walls still intact—it's over."

Something about this scene has me so enthralled that I don't even notice what the others are doing until a blinding white light appear suddenly from the cockpit doors. A terrified shriek comes from my mouth before I could even stop it.

"What was that?!" Val demands, sounding as terrified as I feel.

"What about the driver?" Biff asks.

"The cabin's gone," Ayo says weakly as the Doctor kneels by the panel on the wall.

"It can't be gone, that's ridiculous," Prof—no, this guy is an obtuse idiot, I refuse to call him professor—_Hobbes_ objects.

"Well it's not fucking there, now, is it?" I snark, wincing when I accidentally hit my ankle against the seat in front of me.

"There was nothing there," Ayo continues shakily as if no one else had spoken. "Like it was ripped away."

Biff flashes his torch at the Doctor and asks, "What are you doing?"

"Oh, that's better," the Doctor responds, not really answering the question. "Little bit of light. Molto bene."

The Doctor has pulled out a torch-like thing, an odd whirring sound coming from it as he waves it over the panel.

_Sonic **something**_**,** my mind supplies rather unhelpfully. _It doesn't do wood._

Whatever that means.

"Do you even know what you're doing?" Val asks, followed quickly by Biff demanding that the Doctor "leave the wall alone."

"The cabin can't be gone!" Hobbes insists again, my eye twitching in annoyance.

Sighing, I happen to glance at the blonde woman again, noticing how she still hasn't moved from where she sits on the floor.

"Jethro," I call softly to the teen who seems to be watching the woman as well. "Has she moved at all?"

"No, she hasn't," he tells me quietly. "Not even a twitch. I can't even tell if she's _breathing."_

I feel another chill as I realize that there might be something seriously wrong with the woman. My hand grips the armrest of my seat as I rack my brain for anything that might tell me what's going on. Nothing specific comes to mind, though I do feel the sudden urge to move as far from the woman as possible.

Very, very far.

* * *

**AN: I tried to post this earlier, but it kept saving weird. Usually, I write the chapters on my phone whenever I have time, then I copy and paste it onto the Doc Manager here on the site from my phone to post, but when I tried it today, it kept saving a bunch of random letters and shit. It looked like some kind of alien language or something. I had to rewrite it directly onto the Doc Manager, word for word. So annoying, especially since this is another long chapter, but whatever.**


	9. Chapter 9

I remember the episode now: it's fucking _Twilight_.

Or maybe it was Daylight. Fortnight?

Okay so maybe I don't know what the episode was called, but I do remember the general gist of the plot: mystery monster that can possess people, the Doctor gets possessed, and I think somebody dies. I don't remember who, but if it has to be someone, I hope it's Hobbes. Something about that man just rubs me the wrong way.

I only wish I had remembered all of this sooner so I could have braced myself.

As it stands, here I am, finally coming to the realization only as the Doctor crouches in front of the unmoving blonde, whose name is apparently Mrs. Silvestry, as the woman somehow repeats his words at the exact same time he says them.

The worst part is, even knowing that Mrs. Silvestry is copying them and being very terrified by that fact, everybody is _still_ talking.

"Shut up, you bunch of idiots," I hiss in frustration, Ayo helping me move when the Doctor starts ushering everyone toward the back of the cabin, wincing slightly—less from the pain in my ankle as I accidentally put too much weight on it, and more so from Mrs. Silvestry speaking with me. The others turn to me, varying degrees of offense written on their faces. I make a vague gesture with my hand while I'm deposited into a seat at the back, and then I begin digging around my satchel. Pulling out my sketch book, I turn to a blank page, ignoring the noise of understanding I hear come from one of the others.

**'If the next stage of whatever is going on with Mrs. Silvestry is absorbing, then let's just stop talking,'** I write before turning my sketch book over to show them, deciding to ignore Step 3 of Isra's Declassified Doctor Who Survival Guide (i.e. don't attract attention) in favor of trying to delay the very real possibility of everyone getting possessed.

I guess that just leaves "Step 2: listen to the doctor" as my only remaining hope for survival.

"Brilliant," the Doctor exclaims—_out loud_, mind you—and I give him the absolute most 'are you fucking _kidding_ me?' face I can manage, to which he at least has the decency to look apologetic.

If he keeps this up, I don't think Step 2 will last very long, either.

Rolling my eyes, I hand him the book and pencil. When Biff opens his mouth to say something, I take a moment to glare coldly at him, only looking away when he does. The Doctor finishes sooner than I expected, and turns the book over for the rest of us to see.

**'We all just need to remain calm, just fifty minutes until rescue arrives. We'll all be fine, we just need to stay away from her. She's not exactly doing anything, I don't think she's strong enough yet. All she's got is our voices, and if we avoid speaking from here on, hopefully she won't get anything more than that.'**

Val snatches the book from the Doctor's hands and begins scribbling in it furiously, **'We can't just sit here with that thing right there! There's something wrong with her! Look at her eyes.'**

At that, I chance a glance at Sky, feeling a chill run up my spine at the soulless look in her eyes.

Jethro nudges his mother, and she hands him the book. **'I think whatever was out there went after her for a reason. She was more scared of it than all of us,'** he writes, and a certain pompous Professor scoffs.

"There is no 'it'," Hobbes says aloud, and I feel like tearing my hair out. "She's just a very sick woman, you're all scaring yourselves. Nothing can live on the surface of Midnight, certainly not anything that can somehow possess a woman through solid metal, this is _fact."_

When the Doctor responds to Hobbes, I'm relieved to see that he uses the book instead of speaking. I don't bother to read it though, instead focusing on Sky. Maybe I'm just seeing things, but she looks incredibly pale, a light coating of sweat covering her face. She looks tired, so much so that it's odd that her voice didn't show any sort of strain when she spoke. Despite the tension in her frame, her voice is light, soft even. If I had to compare it, I'd say it sort of sounded like the voice of a kindergarten teacher comforting a sad child.

In the circumstances, it's creepy as hell. If this were a show (which it kind of is), this is probably about when the audience would be shouting at the screen for the characters to run the hell out of there, or try to kill the Thing. Personally, I'm not totally against the latter option, given that the former is impossible, what with us being confined in a shuttle surrounded by Xtonic light that would kill us the moment we tried to leave, never mind the fact that there isn't even air on Midnight.

I mean, ideally we'd all stay quiet until help arrives and we could get her some help to see what happened, but I just know that these idiots I'm stuck with will eventually get bored of doing things the _smart_ way and start yelling again, giving the Thing the chance to possess them as well. As if on cue, my book goes sailing in the possessed woman's direction, and I turn to see Biff with his arm out-stretched, looking angry.

If I burst into tears right now, will Mrs. Silvestry copy that, too?

* * *

**AN: I was gonna have them use the book for longer, but then I remembered the people in this episode were kind of dumb and (justifiably) really panicky, so I really don't think it would have lasted. Especially since it's not a very efficient way of communication—having to pass the book around, waiting for the book just to be able to talk, trying to read other people's handwriting, etc. **


	10. Chapter 10

_**This** is the bad place,_ I think to myself, the sheer strength of my anger and frustration just barely managing to keep me from crying in fear. I so want to yell at these people, but as I said before, I also very much want to live, and so I stop myself. Instead, I settle for repeatedly banging my head against the seat in front of me (gently, though, because I don't actually enjoy pain). I barely get four hits in before a hand places itself on my forehead, keeping me in place. Ayo. She looks at me questioningly, looking concerned. And scared, obviously, but that was a given.

I refuse to respond aloud, also a given, so I mouth, _"Stupid."_

Bewildered by my sudden statement—can it be considered a statement if it's not spoken?—her eyes widen. She points at herself, still in shock. I nod, then swivel my head to look passed her, raising an arm to point at the others. My movement catches their attention, and I look every single one of them in the eye and mouth again, _"Stupid."_

For the second time in less than an hour, everyone looks at me, offense written all over their faces. I point at Ayo and Dee Dee and, with the use of more mouthing and exaggerated hand gestures, inform them that they are the least stupid. I point at the rest, with sharper gestures at Biff, Hobbes, and the Doctor himself, proclaiming them to be the most stupid.

_"Very stupid,"_ I mouth once more, rolling my eyes at Val who squawks in indignation.

"She's right," the Doctor says quietly, which doesn't really help anyone but the Thing. "We can't keep speaking aloud like this."

"If only someone hadn't thrown the book," Ayo comments faux-lightly, looking pointedly at Biff, who scoffs in response.

"It was useless," he claims, though he didn't sound all that convinced. He probably just threw it in a fit of anger without thinking of the consequences or why we needed it in the first place. "And I'm not going anywhere near her to get it. If you want it so bad, get it yourself, you _are_ the Hostess. Or maybe _he_ should get it," he jerks his head in the Doctor's direction, "since he keeps trying to play leader."

"No, I should stay back," the Doctor says immediately. "If copying leads to becoming, the last thing we want is her becoming me, or things could go very bad _very_ quickly."

Val scoffs in the same manner her husband had, "Oh, because you're so _special."_

_He kinda is_, I muse. I'm pretty sure the only one in this shuttle that's even remotely in the vicinity of being as dangerous as him is me, what with the whole foreknowledge thing I've got, shoddy as it is. If the Thing is capable of recalling memories that even I've forgotten, then I'm definitely one of last people anyone would want possessed. Imagine that creature with all the knowledge of the future of this world that I can't even remember anymore.

Yikes.

It's not long before I realize the cabin's gone silent.

"No, absolutely not, don't be ridiculous," the Doctor rebuffs sternly, and I look at the others, some of whom look considering.

What did I miss?

Ayo looks back, eyes almost pleading. "That Thing, whatever it is, killed the driver and the mechanic. What happens when she decides we're next?"

"She can't even move!" the Doctor argues.

"Look at her eyes! She killed Joe and she killed Claude and we're next!"

Seriously, what the hell did I miss? I have got to stop zoning out.

Fuck, I'm doing it again.

"Stop it!" Biff screams at Mrs. Silvestry, moving toward her.

"No one is throwing anybody out!" the Doctor says, glaring the others down.

Dee Dee glances around nervously before squaring her shoulders. "We can, though. There's an air pressure seal. Like when you opened the cabin door, you weren't pulled out—you have a couple of seconds. It takes about six seconds to collapse. Well, six seconds exactly. That's just enough time to throw someone out."

"Would it kill her?"

"I don't know, but she's got a body now, so her physical form—"

"No one is killing anyone!" the Doctor protests angrily, and my neck begins to strain from having to look over my shoulder at the others. I turn to face forward again, content to simply listen in on the argument the others are apparently having about whether to throw Mrs. Silvestry out or not.

Ayo ignores the Doctor's words, "I wouldn't risk the cabin door twice, but we still have that one. All we need to do is grab hold of her and throw her out."

When the Doctor speaks next, his voice is almost a hostile hiss, "Now listen, all of you. For all we know, that's a brand-new lifeform over there, and if it's come to discover us, then what's it found? This little bunch of humans... What do you amount to? Murder? 'Cause this is where you decide. You decide who you are. Could you actually murder her? Any of you? Really? Or are you better than that?"

My eyes snap open at that, anger filling me as I finally cross off my last remaining survival step.

"Oh, get off you're fucking high horse," I retort, no longer able to keep quiet, though it feels somewhat awkwardly as I'm still facing away from the rest of them.

"_Excuse me?_" the Doctor sounds equal parts surprised and dangerous, somehow.

"You don't get to pretend to be better than us because you _refuse_ to kill the creature that's already _killed_ two people. Granted, we don't know for sure that it killed Joe and Claude, but it would be one _hell_ of a coincidence if it just happened to appear at the same time that the cabin was _mysteriously_ torn off. We don't even know what happened to them. Not to mention whatever is happening to Sky. I mean, look at her."

"We _have_ been—" the Doctor begins as he moves to stand beside me, but I interrupt him with a glare.

"No, _really_ look at her," I insist, keeping my voice low, even though I'm pretty sure it doesn't help against the Thing. Hopefully it chooses victims based on how much they've talked, otherwise I'm just as screwed as everyone else. "I don't know if any of you have noticed, but you guys all keep talking about her and the creature as if they were one thing, as if she wasn't just a normal person half an hour ago. Now she can't even move, her eyes are empty, she's too pale—she can't even speak for herself. We don't know what happened to Joe and Claude, but we can _see_ what's happening to Sky _right in front of us_. Look at her, really look. This is what the creature you are so desperate to save is doing to an innocent person. You don't get to start preaching to us, pretending you're better than us "little humans" just because you want to protect a monster that's currently _murdering_ someone."

"We don't know that Sky is dying," the Doctor tries to protest.

**"**_**Look** at her, Doctor,_" I argue, voice shrill. "Does that look _healthy_ to you?"

"The creature might not even understand that it's hurting anyone," he reasons, a desperate look in his eyes, as if he needs to hear that _someone_ thinks he's doing the right thing. "If it's never met a human before, it might not know that it's actions have harmful consequences for the people it's hurt. It's lived on the surface of Midnight for however long, why should it think that it would be dangerous for Joe and Claude? And for all we know, possession is just how this species greets each other. All I'm saying is that it might not know what it's done to them."

"But it could know _exactly_ what it's done!" Val stresses, and I can't help but agree.

"I want her out," Dee Dee adds pleadingly, voice sounding hopeless. "I just want to be _safe."_

_"_It's you against the rest of us, Doctor," Val says, for some reason deciding she gets to speak for everyone, myself included.

"Now, hang on, I never said I agreed to this," Hobbes says quickly. "I think we all need to calm down a bit."

"Yeah, I'm actually with him on this," I say, looking over my shoulder again.

"You were just saying—"

"_I was saying_ that the Doctor has no right to judge how we react to danger," I interject before Val can go and speak for me again. "I never said anything about believing that killing her was the best option. Like I said before, the creature may have possessed Sky, but it's still a separate being. There's still a chance we can save her once we get back."

"Exactly," the Doctor cuts in, looking relieved that not everyone has jumped on the murder train. "I can contain it when we get back to the base and then figure something out there."

"Well, you haven't done much so far!"

"You're just standing in the back with the rest of us."

"The base will have more resources that we don't have here," I say. "If we all just calm down, we'll be fine. There's only thirty minutes until help comes."

"Yeah, I don't want to kill anyone," Jethro speaks up for the first time in a while.

"Thank you," the Doctor says gratefully.

"He's just a boy," Val scoffs in that "I'm the parent, I'm smarter than you" way that always gives me a headache, even in my first life.

"What? So I don't get to vote?"

"We're not voting," the Doctor corrects him. "There is no vote because it's not going to happen. You'll have to go through me first."

His challenging look deters absolutely no one, as both Ayo and Biff immediately square up, scowling at him.

"Do you really think you could do it?" the Doctor gets in Biff's face aggressively, but to his credit, Biff doesn't look too scared. "It's one thing to talk about it, it's a completely different thing to grab a hold of someone and throw them out there."

"Are you calling me a coward?" Biff questions angrily, and my headache gets worse as I try to figure out how that relates to the Doctor's statement.

"Who put you in charge anyway?" Val probes.

"I'm sorry, but you're a doctor of what, exactly?"

"You said he works here," Val adds, abruptly turning to me. "What exactly is his job?"

Everyone turns to me, too, both the Doctor and Ayo looking more surprised than the rest.

"He's a consultant," I say, perhaps a little too quickly, trying to think passed the sudden ringing in my ears. "A scientist. He sometimes helps out at the spa, making sure our regulations are up to date so it's safe for people to tan under the light,"

_"A beautician?"_ Val derides the Doctor, who only looks confused.

He's probably wondering why I'm trying so hard to cover for him. Honestly, at this point, I'm wondering that, too.

"Not exactly," I mutter, catching Ayo's gaze pleadingly. I'm finding it harder to think straight with all this pressure on me, especially since the anger from earlier has all but drained out of me by now, just leaving me exhausted. Ayo, however, shakes her head.

"This is the first I've heard of it," Ayo reveals, and I can't even find it in me to feel upset, since I know she's just scared and doesn't trust the Doctor. Not that he's really given anyone any reason to. "He just showed up here, out of the blue—he wasn't even booked in."

The tension in the shuttle rises, and I face forward again, not having to look to know that everyone is now staring at the Doctor and me accusingly. The Doctor for obvious reasons, and me because they now know I've been lying to help him.

"Where did you come from?" Dee Dee asks the Doctor suspiciously.

"Nowhere, I'm just traveling. I'm a traveler," the Doctor tries to explain.

"Like an immigrant?" Val demands, and I pause at her tone, turning back just in time to see her vaguely disgusted expression.

"Okay, no, wait, why did you just say "immigrant" like that?" I ask, unsurprised when I'm ignored.

"Who were you talking to? You were talking to someone before you got on board, who was that?" Ayo interrogates, eyes narrowing.

"Just Donna, my friend."

"And what were you saying to her?"

"He hasn't even told us his name."

At this, Jethro apparently comes to a realization, staring at the Doctor hard. "Thing is, though, Doctor, you've been loving this."

"Not you, too, Jethro," the Doctor moans beseechingly.

"Ever since all this trouble started, you've been loving it."

"It has to be said, you do seem to have a certain," Hobbes pauses, clearly trying to put his thoughts into words before settling on, _"glee."_

"Alright, yes, I'm interested. Like I said earlier, that could be a brand new lifeform, I can't help but find it fascinating."

"What, you wanted this to happen?"

The Doctor's immediate denial goes ignored as everyone continues to accuse him. "You were talking to her, all on your own, before all this happened. The two of you, you and that Sky woman, I saw you!"

"We all did!"

"You went into the cabin before, too."

"What did you say to her?"

"I was just talking!"

"About what, though?"

"You called us "humans", like you're not one of us."

"And the wiring, you went to the panel and opened up the wiring!"

"That was after," the Doctor tries to defend.

"But how did you know what to do?" Biff demands.

"Because I'm clever!" the Doctor declares, causing silence to reign as they all stared at him. A moment later, they turn to me, and I realize they're connecting his statement to my calling them stupid only minutes ago.

"You in this together, then?" Biff sneers at me. "You two come here to mock the stupid little humans, huh?"

"You lied to protect him earlier," Val says. "_Do_ you even work here?"

"She does," Ayo informs her quickly.

Even scared and angry as she is, it's nice to know she won't completely throw me to the wolves.

"Then why were you lying?" Val continues to question me. "Why are you helping him? Has he done something to you?"

"No, I," but I can't argue without revealing what I know, and then I'll just look crazy. Or worse, like I knew something bad was going to happen to everyone and did nothing to stop it.

Which is exactly what I did.

"See, because you've been looking down on us from the very beginning—you and him."

"Maybe we should throw you two out as well as her," Biff suggests, and with a quick glance at the Doctor, I see that I'm not the only one stunned.

I chance a look at Ayo and see that she's conflicted. She's probably reluctant to agree, but by the way she looks at the Doctor, I can tell she sees him as a threat. She just doesn't understand why I would side with him when he's been nothing but suspicious at best, and downright threatening at worst.

"Look, just—I know you're scared, okay? Look at me, I am, too. And I'm sure Isra is, too. But we all just need to calm down and cool off and think!" the Doctor exclaims.

"Then perhaps you could tell us your name," Hobbes suggests pointedly.

"What does it matter?'

"Then just tell us," Ayo urges.

"John Smith," he answers after a quick exhale and the others groan.

"Your _real_ name."

"He's lying, look at his face!"

"Why won't you tell us?"

"No one's called John Smith!"

"Now listen to me! If we're going to survive this, you need me!" the Doctor insists, trying to regain control of the group.

"So you keep saying. You've been repeating yourself more than her."

"If anyone's in charge, it should be the professor! He's the expert!"

Jethro nudges his mother, "Mum, look."

"Keep out of this, Jethro!"

"No, mum, look at her!"

We all turn to look at Mrs. Silvestry, realizing that she's finally stopped copying.

"She's stopped," Dee Dee says, stating the obvious.

"When did she," the Doctor cuts himself off when Sky speaks with him. Shamefully, I note that a part of me is relieved that it's him and that I hadn't managed to screw myself over because I couldn't control my temper. "She's still doing it."

"She looks the same to me..." Val begins, eyes widening when Sky doesn't say anything. "No, she has stopped! I'm talking, and she's not!"

The others test it out, too, as the Doctor moves toward Sky. I freeze, vaguely recognizing the scene. He's about to get possessed, I can feel it. I concentrate, trying hard to remember what happens next. My head hurts, probably from the stress, but I try to ignore it as I think. I'm pretty sure he comes out fine, but I can't remember how. Maybe I can speed up the process, or even stop the whole possession thing from happening altogether.

"Do you see? I said so. She's with him!" Val accuses, Biff agreeing with her.

"How do you explain then, Doctor, if you're so clever?" Hobbes asks spitefully.

"I don't know! Sky, stop it. I said, stop it! Just stop it!"

"Look at the two of them!"

The Doctor crouches in front of Sky, and I stare at them, feeling powerless. I can only continue watching helplessly as the Doctor speaks to Sky, and I squeeze my eyes shut when she begins to speak before him. The others stare in astonishment at the turn of events, but I only feel...

Honestly, I don't really know how I feel. I just know that it's _too much_.

"Oh, look at that, I'm ahead of you," the Thing says, the voice still light and airy. The Doctor, on the other hand, sounds choked up.

It's so much more disturbing with the Doctor like this than it had ever been with Mrs. Silvestry. Maybe it's only because I hadn't really known Sky, but with the Doctor, I can tell that there's something wrong. From my seat, I can see the minute tremors in his body, and the way he speaks is wrong. The Doctor, as I've known him these passed few hours, is larger-than-life, barely contained manic energy. But, now, he speaks with none of the spark that usually coats his words. In fact, he's speaking more like how I had thought Sky should have—lifeless, exhausted, and strained.

And scared.

"Did you see? She spoke before he did, definitely!"

"He's copying her."

"Doctor, what's happening?"

"I think it's moved," the Thing answers for him.

"I think it's letting me go," she continues, sounding nothing like someone who has spent the last half an hour or so possessed by a monster should probably sound. There is no relief, no fear, not even any genuine confusion. She just sounds _amused._

"What do you mean? Letting you go from what?" Dee Dee asks, apparently the only other person skeptical about this.

"He's the one repeating now," Biff says. "It's him."

"They're separating," Jethro agrees breathlessly.

"Mrs. Silvestry, is that you?"

"Yes, yes, it's me," the Thing tells Hobbes, and I could swear she sounds mocking. "I'm coming back. Listen...it's me!"

"It transferred into the Doctor," Jethro says, trying to put the pieces together. "Whatever it is left her and it's gone inside him."

Dee Dee, though, sounds horrified, shaking her head, "No, I don't think that's what happened."

"But look at her!"

"Look at me," the Thing says, moving around, while the Doctor echoes her words. "I can move. I can _feel_ again. I'm coming back to life. And look at him. He _can't_ move. Help me."

This last part she aims at us, and I tense when she catches my gaze. I avert my eyes back to the Doctor's crouched form, once again trying to remember anything of use.

"Professor...get me away from him. Please."

Hobbes cautiously makes his way to her, helping her stand once he reaches her, careful not to touch the Doctor.

The Thing breathes a sigh of relief, "Oh, thank you."

"She's been saved! She's free!"

"Oh, it was so cold. I couldn't breathe. I'm so sorry, I must have scared you all so much."

Val is quick to hug her, whispering reassurances. Dee Dee shuffles where she stands, gathering herself.

There's a sudden hand on my shoulder, and I startle. Ayo is looking at me in concern again, and I start to ask her why before realizing that I'm trembling. I open my mouth, but no words come out. Instead, I wordlessly shake my head, eyes flitting between the Doctor and the Thing so quickly that I'm surprised I'm even registering any of what I'm seeing.

"No!" Dee Dee urges, terrified and frustrated, and I turn my gaze to her.

"Just leave her alone," Val orders, staring Dee Dee down. "She's safe now, right? It's let her go, right, Jethro?"

"I think so, yeah," Jethro agrees, his voice one of someone who is trying to convince himself. The teen quickly turns to Hobbes, asking for his opinion.

"I'd say, from observation...the Doctor can't move," he gestures to the prone Time Lord, "and when she was possessed, she couldn't move, so—"

"That's it then. Now our only problem is this Doctor," Biff interrupts, spitting out the last word as if it were a curse.

The Thing is smirking smugly, and again I have to wonder how anyone is falling for this. With a quick glance, I realize that none of them are even looking at her. Other than Dee Dee, their eyes almost seem to slide right off her. It's like she doesn't completely exist or something.

_Perception filter?_

I pause at the internal question, having no idea where those words came from or what they mean. Although, using logic, I can assume it's something that _filters_ someone's _perception,_ which might make sense. Maybe people can't see her for what she really is until they start to question her, or something.

Of course, it could also just be willful ignorance—they don't what to see the truth, so they ignore it.

"It's inside his head. It got the driver and the mechanic, and now it wants us," at this, Ayo's hand on my shoulder squeezes, so I lay my own on her's.

Ayo turns her head down to face me again, and I whisper softly, "She's lying."

She stares me down, lips pursing, before she looks back at the Thing. The longer she stares, I could swear she starts to look at her like, well, the way Dee Dee and I have been. Maybe I was on to something about that perception filter thing.

"...in the diamonds," the Thing is saying, looking at the others, her voice playful. "Until you came. Bodies so hot with blood. And pain."

"Stop it, make him stop!" Val begs, trembling.

"But she's the one saying it!" Dee Dee points out, but is quickly rebuffed by Val. Unconcerned, Dee Dee continues on, "But it's her, though. He's just repeating."

"That's what the thing does, it repeats!"

Ayo squeezes my hand again, speaking up for the first time since the Thing had gained full control over Sky's body, "Just let her talk."

Biff sneers, "What do you know? Fat lot of good you've been!"

"Just let her explain," she demands, turning to Dee Dee with a look that said 'go ahead'.

Dee Dee shakes slightly, nervous, but only for a moment before she begins to explain, "Well, from what I've seen, it repeats and it synchronizes and then it goes on to the next stage, and that's exactly what the Doctor said would happen."

"What, then you're on his side?" Biffs asks in disbelief.

"_No_."

"The voice is the Thing!"

"And _she's_ the voice! She _stole_ it! Look at her, it's not possessing him it's _draining_ him!"

"She stole his voice," Ayo says to herself breathlessly, and alarm bells start ringing in my head, just like when I'd first recognized the Doctor. Ayo's words had triggered something in my memory, but I just can't figure out what it was. Instinctively, I shifted to better grip her hand, but she doesn't even look away from the Thing, a strange sort of understanding dawning on her face.

"I saw it go into him with my own eyes!"

"You didn't," Dee Dee tries to argue.

"It went from her to him," Val went on as if Dee Dee hadn't spoken. "You saw it too, didn't you?" This she aims at Jethro, who now looks scared and panicked and unsure.

"I-I don't know," he stutters, flinching when his mother yells at him for his answer.

Dread has long begun coiling in my stomach, and yet I still don't know what is about to happen.

"I _saw_ her stealing his voice," Dee Dee says defiantly, and I forcefully shake myself from my terrified stupor at the sight. Here is this girl standing up for a man she doesn't even know or trust, just because it's the right thing to do. And here I am, someone who knows _exactly_ how important and good he is, cowering in my seat as if I were the one in danger.

Disgusted with my self, I take a deep breath. "Dee Dee's right."

"Oh, don't even get me started on you!" Biff glares at me heatedly, and the little bravado I'd managed to scrape together actually seems to bolster a bit at the look. "You've been scheming with him since the beginning, don't think I forgot."

"That's how he does it," the Thing says, a self-satisfied smirk on her face. "He makes you fight, creeps into your head—"

"Shut your fucking mouth, you absolute _asshole_," I interrupt, still trying to steel my nerves. "If it's really _him_ creeping inside people's heads, then why are _you _the one that keeps talking?"

"You leave the poor woman alone!" Val practically screams at me.

"She's been through far too much to deserve this baseless slander from you two," Hobbes agrees, glaring at Dee Dee and I, before resting his gaze on Dee Dee. "You think you're so clever, but the truth is, you're nothing more than average _at best_."

"We're throwing him out!" Biff announces decidedly, Val nodding along with him. "I have had enough of this."

"Yes!" the Thing encourages. "Throw him out! Get rid of him! Now!"

"No, don't!" Dee Dee cries.

"Leave him alone!" I shout, scrambling to my feet, dropping back down as I feel the shooting pain in my ankle.

"Shut up! Professor, grab hold of him!"

"Do it!" the Thing cheers on amid the chaos. "Faster!"

"Just hurry up and do it!" Val yells at Biff and Hobbes, all while Jethro looks as if he's about to cry.

"That's the way," goads the Thing, "You can do it. Molto bene!"

"Throw him out!"

"Allons-y."

I stiffen, as does Ayo who stands beside me. "That's his voice," she whispers in realization.

_"What was her name?"_ I hear a voice ask in the back of my mind. I glance at Ayo, and finally a memory surfaces. It's only a flash—Ayo holding on to the Thing, silhouetted by the bright light of Midnight, and then they're gone—but it's enough for me to put together the pieces.

_'...mystery monster that can possess people, the Doctor gets possessed, and I think somebody dies,' _I remember thinking earlier, blandly, as if it were no big deal.

"It's taken his voice!" Ayo moves away from me, and I grapple to stop her.

"No!" I cry, my fingers only barely brushing against the hem of her skirt before she's fully out of reach. "No, wait, Ayo, you'll die!"

She continues on, seemingly not hearing my words as she marches forward. "It's her, she's taken his voice!"

"Stop her!" I plead, but I go unheard in all the confusion.

It happens just as I remembered it, over almost as quickly. Ayo takes hold of the Thing, and in seconds, they're both sucked out of the shuttle, and then the door shuts with a definitive thud.

The Doctor is muttering something now, and everyone else is panting, but I barely notice.

Ayo was my _friend._ One of the only people on this godforsaken planet I ever spoke to regularly and of my own free will. And if I had taken this all more seriously, maybe I could have remembered earlier and been able to save her. Hell, maybe I could have saved Sky and Joe and Claude, too. But I was too busy focused on my own survival, my own problems.

I've never been more disgusted with myself.

I'll have to tell her family. Knowing the company, the most they'll do is send a notice, maybe even a bit of compensation if they decide to be generous. God, knowing them, they might even try to frame her death as some sort of suicide to keep their noses clean. I'll need to make sure that her family knows what really happened here.

"Isra?" I distantly note someone call out to me, but I ignore it easily.

Ayo was their main source of income. Maybe I can help them—can I afford to take care of two more people? I'll have to take less days off, maybe look for a better paying job. The spa has been looking for a new secretary, maybe I can convince them to consider me for the spot as a sort of 'we're sorry you almost died on our tour' consolation prize.

"Hey," the same voice from earlier says gently, and I finally decide to focus my gaze on the face in front of me.

The Doctor. Of course.

"What was her name?" he asks me with a minuscule wince. When all I do is stare at him uncomprehendingly, he elaborates, "the hostess. What was her name?"

I avert my gaze from him, looking around the shuttle to see the rest of them looking at me. I feel numb as I say, "Her name was Ayo James. She was a wife and a mother and my friend. And now she's dead. Because of us."

Because of _me._

* * *

"It looks like you might have a mild concussion," the medic tells me, and I nod slightly. It must have happened when the shuttle got knocked around by the Thing, and I guess it explains all the zoning out, the headaches, and why my thoughts have been so...fuzzy. "But other than that and the ankle, you should be fine."

"Thank you," I say politely as she finishes explaining what I'll need to do to recover, though I'm having trouble meeting her gaze as she moves to leave. I'm finding it difficult to meet anyone's gaze, truthfully.

The other people in the rescue vehicle aren't nearly as silent as I am. Val and Biff, especially, seem to think anyone cares to hear about how their experience was somehow worse than everyone else's. Dee Dee is speaking to one of the other medics while the medic that just left me is checking on Hobbes, both he and Dee Dee very obviously looking everywhere but at each other. Jethro is seated closer to me than the others—pretty much as far from his parents as is physically possible—and a medic seems to be trying to talk him through his shock.

The Doctor, I notice, is staring off into space, his eyes haunted. I wonder how long he's been like this. After all, there's only twenty more minutes until we reach the Leisure Palace and, now that I think about it, I don't think I've heard a word from him.

After a moment, I realize I don't really care. No matter that I know, logically, none of this was his fault, I can't help but blame him. If only he'd been quicker, if only he'd been smarter, if only he'd been _better_—

It's just easier to think those things about him than myself. He's the alien, the Time Lord, the _protagonist._ He's supposed to be _better_ than this. I'm just a side character that was never meant to exist in the first place. It's not my fault my memory isn't perfect, it's not my fault I can't predict the future, it's not my fault that I couldn't think with my concussion, _it's not my fault_.

_But it is, _a voice in my head sings and I choke down a sob.

* * *

I walk listlessly, with only a slight limp now that my ankle has been treated, and the woman speaking to the Doctor seems to pause mid sentence at the sight of me. The Doctor notices her distraction and looks over his shoulder, eyebrows raising in surprise.

When I finally reach them, they stare at me questioningly. 'Why are you here?' their eyes seem to say.

Truth be told, I don't know why I went looking for them, either. I want nothing more than to collapse anywhere even remotely comfortable and just forget the world for a few moments, but I just...I just feel like I need _answers._ To what, I'm not sure yet.

"Did you want something?" the woman finally asks, somewhat awkwardly.

"You must be Donna," I comment lightly, rather than answer her question.

"Yeah, that's me."

"The Doctor mentioned you," I inform her, glancing at the Doctor, and then at the big blue box a little ways away from us.

The Doctor clears his throat, drawing my gaze back to him, and he asks slowly, clearly concerned, "Is there something you needed, Isra?"

"I..." I pause, swallowing hard. I turn my gaze back to the box—_the **TARDIS**, time and relative dimension in space_—and suddenly I know what I came here for. "That device. The one you used on the panel."

The Doctor seems taken aback, at either my line of thought or the intensity I'm sure is on my face, I can't be sure.

"Can you use it?" I ask quickly before he can say anything. "On me? Can you scan me with it?"

"Why would you want that?" he asks me suspiciously.

I shake my head vigorously, "Can you just—please? _I_ _need_ _to_ _know_."

Neither he nor Donna move for a moment, but the curiosity must get to him because he soon takes out the _sonic_ _something_, pointing it at me. There's a light and a sound coming from it that fills me with nostalgia but I push it down, focusing only on the look on his face. I watch as the curiosity changes to bewilderment and then to confusion, until it finally settles on a _look._ It is a look that is both familiar and completely unsettling.

It's the same look that he gave the Thing. Wonder, fascination, scrutiny—the kind of look that says, '_Now **here's** a mystery to be solved_.'

"You..." he trails off, looking from me to the sonic in rapid succession. "What _are_ you?"

"What? What's going on?" Donna asks, surprised by the Doctor's reaction.

"Thank you, Doctor, that's all I needed to know," I say hurriedly, turning away as quickly as I can, hobbling back the way I came.

"Hey, wait—" the Doctor begins to call after me, but I assume Donna stops him because no one impedes my getaway.

I don't know what I had hoped to get from this—whether I was looking for closure or maybe some way to liberate myself from the guilt I feel—but I don't think it was this crushing feeling in my chest.

It's one thing to _think_ that there's something different about me that could have saved people today, it's another thing to have it all but confirmed.

What am I, indeed.

* * *

**AN: I'm tired. This semester was already kicking my ass before the outbreak, and now I just want to sleep forever. College sucks. These were the last three chapters I had written since I haven't really had a lot of motivation to do much these days, but I felt bad just leaving you guys with nothing this whole time, so I'm posting them now as one chapter. I don't know when I'll be updating next, but hopefully the wait won't be too long.**

**Sorry for any mistakes that I may have missed, this chapter is really long, especially compared to my usual chapter length.**

**In any case, I hope you all are staying safe through all this. Remember to wash your hands and keep social-distancing if you can.**


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